The Gallan
by kiss me i'm a pirate
Summary: The crew saves an interesting young woman. Tyr is more interested than some of the others. PG13 rating is for mild language.
1. An Interesting Guest

Disclaimer: Andromeda and all the characters from the show belong to Tribune and Gene Rodenberry et al. You can just assume that all the characters you don't recognize from the show belong to me. I would list my characters, but I'm afraid it might give away part of the plot, so you'll have to read the whole thing to find them all. MUAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry. Don't mind me, I just got a little carried away there.  
  
Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Andromeda fan fic. I know it's not exactly the best, but a lot of the Andromeda fan fics that have shown up here lately are kind of lame, although I really like the Gillian saga (Those fics are written by Cherubino, in case you were wondering). Please r/r but flames are for roasting marshmallows and I'm all out at the moment, so don't flame 'til I say I've gotten more, okay? Anyway, here's Chapter 1 of my masterpiece. Enjoy!  
  
  
  
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"GET – OFF – MY – ASS!!!!" Captain Izobella Porter hissed at the Drago Katzov ships on her scanner and she maneuvered her High Class Gallan Stealth Warship in and out of a shower of missiles. She smacked her palm on the launch button and added "PRONTO!!!" immediately before 4 of the 6 ships tailing her exploded and disappeared from her scanner. Her superior smiled turned into a frown when her ship rocked from the impact of one of the remaining ships' missiles.  
  
"Izzy!" called a female voice from the doorway, "The Slipstream drive is down and there is no way in hell I can fix Shielding Systems 3 and 4 without your help."  
  
Izobella sighed and replied, "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this…Jak, I'd prepare for a nastiest battle of your life if I were you." She slowed her ship to a stop and waited.  
  
"So, shall I take your stopping as surrender, or would you prefer to have your beautiful ship boarded and have you and your friend there die slow, painfully, messy deaths?" the tall, dark Neitzschean pilot of one of the Drago Katzov ships said as his face popped up on the comm. screen.  
  
"I was leaning more toward the second option," Izzy answered, "but we don't plan on dieing.  
  
"Nobody ever does," the Neitz laughed wickedly and broke the comm. link.  
  
Izzy locked the door to the command deck and opened her enormous weapons locker. She pulled out a dozen 10 in. double edged knives and stuck six into each of her knee-high black boots, a gauss gun was shoved into its holster on each of her hips, and a set of 3 ½ ft. Ancient Egyptian style swords were crossed on her ankle-length-black-leather-jacket clad back under a large iron shield. As she turned to face the not-yet-broken-open door, she paused, reached out for a jewel-handled ceremonial dagger, and at the last moment, decided to hide it under a secret board in the locker instead of tucking it into the back of her mid-thigh length black skirt like she usually did.  
  
"You ready, Jak?" she asked.  
  
"Let's rumble!" called the young woman standing by the weapons locker on the opposite wall.  
  
"Bring it on!" Izobella yelled at the top of her lungs, as she turned to face the door.  
  
  
  
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"Dylan, I'm picking up a transmission," Andromeda told her Captain.  
  
"Can I get a visual?" he asked.  
  
"No, it's voice only," was the AI's reply.  
  
"Good enough," Dylan said.  
  
"Mayday! Mayday!" a woman's voice filled the Command deck, "I don't know if anyone will ever get this, but if you do, I am Captain Izobella Porter of the Esse Quam Videri and I have been attacked by the Drago Katzov. My engineer and best friend is dead and my ship is barely functional. If you have it in your heart to help a stranger in need I can assure you will be rewarded. Porter out."  
  
"Well, that was certainly interesting," Dylan said to no one in particular.  
  
"So…are we going to be our usual do-gooder selves and go searching for her?" Beka asked.  
  
"Why not?" Dylan replied, "Rommie, please locate the Esse Quam Videri and set a course for it."  
  
"Aye, Captain," Andromeda replied, "ship located. ETA is 2 hours."  
  
  
  
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Andromeda had found the Esse Quam Videri and pulled it into Docking Bay 6, and now Dylan, Harper, and Tyr were wandering around inside looking for Izobella with gauss guns and force lances drawn in case there were still Dragons creeping in the shadows. Tyr was stalking silently down an empty corridor when, all of a sudden, he heard a squeak above his head and a knife blade was pressed against his neck and he felt someone's hot breath by his ear.  
  
"Who are you, Neitz?" a female voice asked in a menacing voice, "Why are you here? Did you hear that your little friend failed to kill me and come to finish the job?"  
  
"I am Tyr Anasazi of the Kodiak Pride out of Victoria by Barbarosa," Tyr stated in an even tone, "and I can assure you that the Drago Katzov are no friends of mine." The knife blade was removed and a tall redhead swung down out of the air vent.  
  
"Forgive me," the woman said, "I've had too many unpleasant encounters with Neitzscheans in the last few months to no be suspicious when one just waltzes in not trying to kill me."  
  
"I would be on my guard as well, so you are forgiven," Tyr said, "I'm assuming you are Captain Izobella Porter."  
  
"Indeed, I am," Izobella replied.  
  
Tyr tapped his comm. button and announced, "I found her."  
  
"Yeah? Well, I found her friend and I haven't touched her or anything, but it looks like we're too late," Harper answered, "What the…? Holy shit! AHHHHHHHHH! There's a giant cat chasing me!" A gauss gun was heard, followed by a deafening roar.  
  
Izobella's head almost bugged out of her head as she turned and ran down the corridor, shouting, "Artemis! Leave him alone! He's one of the good guys! Remember the last time you got shot? Remember how much it hurt? Stop it!" Tyr ran onto the Command Deck of the Esse Quam Videri just in time to see a Black Panther pounce on a screaming Harper and then Izobella ran across the room, dived, and tackled the Panther. The pair rolled around in a roaring, growling mess for a few moments before they collapsed on the ground, Izobella laughing lying there laughing and sweating, with her chest heaving and Artemis purring and licking her fur, trying to make it smooth again. Izobella managed to control her laughter and stood up, then glanced over at Harper, who, half thinking she was insane and half trying not to piss his pants in fear, was looking at her with the strangest expression on his face, which caused Izzy to burst out laughing again.  
  
"Artemis, have you seen Dante recently?" Izzy asked the panther, earning her another strange look from Harper. When Artemis shook her head back and forth, Izobella added, "Well, then can you go find him?" Artemis nodded and turned to leave.  
  
"Are you aware you were just talking to a giant cat and she listened?" Harper asked.  
  
"Yeah," Izzy replied with a chuckle, "she's a smart cat."  
  
"So, this is Captain Izobella?" Dylan asked as he walked in.  
  
"The one and only," Izzy confirmed, "and you would be…?"  
  
"Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant," Dylan stuck out his hand, which Izobella shook, "I see you've already met our resident Neitzschean, Tyr Anasazi, and my Engineer, Seamus Harper."  
  
"What are you talking about?" came a slightly perturbed female voice from outside the door, "he's my Engineer."  
  
"Hey, Boss," Harper greeted Beka when she sauntered in.  
  
"You guys were taking too long and I heard Harper scream like a little girl, so I decided to come check it out," the blonde Captain explained after receiving a dubious look from Dylan, and then she turned to Izzy, "Are you aware that there is a dead Neitzschean in the doorway? I almost tripped and broke my neck."  
  
"Jeez, nice to meet you, too," Izobella chuckled.  
  
"Oh, sorry," Beka apologized, "I'm Captain Rebeka Valentine of the Eureka Maru and Acting First Officer aboard the Andromeda Ascendant."  
  
"Once again, nice to meet you," Izobella repeated, this time with a bit more genuine sincerity, "you didn't happen to see a big blue and green bird on your way in, did you?"  
  
"Ummm…not that I recall," Beka said.  
  
"Did it happen to look anything like this?" Trance asked as she walked in with a big blue Macaw perched on her shoulder."  
  
"That's the one," Izzy smiled and stretched out her wrist, which the Macaw hopped happily onto, "Dante, what have you been up to?" The brightly colored bird ruffled its feathers and squawked loudly then tilted its head and looked at Izobella quizzically.  
  
"Don't play dumb," the feisty redhead ordered, "I promise they're not bad. They won't bird-nap you and stick you in a zoo or do tests on you just because you're smart." The Macaw just squawked dumbly and was rewarded with a glare.  
  
"Oh, all right," it finally said in perfect common, astonishing all of the Andromeda crewmembers, "and I suppose that if they tried anything fishy, you would have their asses strapped to the hull of your ship while trying to navigate uncharted slipstream portals."  
  
"Yeah…but I haven't done that for years," Izzy said, with a straight face, "It's so…What's the best word to describe it?...messy."  
  
"It…it talks," Beka stuttered in disbelief.  
  
"I would say that he's very well trained, but I would be lying," Izobella grumbled, "he's the rudest creature in all the know worlds."  
  
"You've never actually strapped people to your ship in space before, have you?" Harper whined apprehensively, "That was just a joke, right?"  
  
"Maybe not," Izobella replied with a mischievous glint in her eye, "but, then again, maybe I did. Maybe nobody will ever know, except me."  
  
"She didn't," Dante said in a matter-of-fact voice,  
  
"Oh, you just have to ruin all of my fun, don't you?" Izzy snapped.  
  
"Yeah, all the more fun for me," the bird replied.  
  
"Dante, my patience is wearing thin and I'm hungry," she hissed as she brought the Macaw perched on her wrist right up to her face and pulled a skewer and a lighter out of one of her jacket pockets, "I'll tell you what. You have 5 seconds to get out of my sight before I make a rotisserie dinner out of you." She glared and Dante jumped of off her wrist and flew off.  
  
"Bitch!" he squawked before he was out of hearing range.  
  
Izobella put her head in her hands and groaned, "I'm sorry you guys had to meet that little brat on such a bad day. He can be such a sweetie when he wants to be, but he denies his emotions and they come out as some of the most annoying things sometimes. Ugh, and you've already been treated so horribly for people who are trying to help me. I mean really, I almost slit Tyr's throat, Artemis attacked Harper, and you're all probably completely disgusted by Dante's behavior. I'd understand and wouldn't hold it against you if you left me to die."  
  
"We wouldn't do that," Dylan assured her.  
  
"I know," Izobella admitted, with a sheepish grin.  
  
"Oh? How's that?" Dylan asked.  
  
"You don't come off as the type of guy who would just leave an innocent person to die. Hell, you don't even come off as the type of guy who'd leave a guilty person to die."  
  
"Beka," Dylan ordered, still contemplating what Izzy had said, "Would you please escort Captain Porter to her quarters?"  
  
"Sure," Beka replied, "Follow me."  
  
  
  
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"Well, this is it," Beka announced as she opened the door to one of the guest quarters.  
  
"Wow. Not bad," Izobella murmured, "It's about 4 times as big as the Captain's quarters on the Esse. I mean, she's not a bad ship, but she's a stealth warship, so she's got to be small. There isn't a whole lot of room for big quarters. The crew and guest quarters are even smaller than mine. Jak didn't complain, though. She just loved the thrill of traveling the universe and saving everyone's ass with her best friend. I'll have to get in touch with her brother and tell him the bad news. He'll want to come and say goodbye to his baby sister and probably take her home and bury her with the family. I should probably talk to her older sister, too. She already knows what happened, but she just won't accept that her little Munchkin is gone." Izzy pressed her lips tight together, but they still quivered, and Beka noticed it, but then the surprisingly emotional redheaded Captain must have noticed she was being watched like a hawk and her face turned to stone, revealing nothing.  
  
"I'll leave you alone for a while," Beka said, "but if you'd like to spruce the place up a bit, the old crew storage areas are full of things that I'm sure Dylan would let you use."  
  
"Wait," Izobella looked up at Beka, "Do you think Dylan would be okay with it if I had a visitor?"  
  
"Probably," Beka admitted, "but you should ask him. He tends to surprise you by disagreeing if you do things without his knowledge."  
  
"Okay," Izobella replied, "could you thank Captain Hunt for me? I didn't get a chance."  
  
"Sure," Beka smiled and left.  
  
  
  
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"I think she's nuts," Harper admitted.  
  
"She seemed to be hiding something," Tyr said, "I don't trust her."  
  
"Not a lot of people trust you, either," Beka snapped, "it doesn't mean she's bad. I like her just fine, but when I showed her into her quarters, she started talking to me and she said something that disturbed me. It wasn't even an unusual thing to say, she just said it in the strangest way."  
  
"What?" Dylan asked.  
  
"Well she said that she'd have to tell Jak's brother about what happened and that he'd probably want to collect the body and bury it with the family," Beka explained, "but what disturbed me was when she said Jak's sister already knew but wouldn't accept that her "little Munchkin" had died, she just said it in the weirdest tone."  
  
"Give her a break," Trance reasoned, "it's my understanding that Jak was Izobella's best friend. Wouldn't you be upset if your best friend just died?"  
  
"What was that sound?" Harper, who had stopped paying any attention to the conversation after his addition to it, asked.  
  
"I do believe our guest just got something more to mourn about," Tyr said.  
  
"I'll be right back," Beka said as she stood up and left Dylan's office.  
  
  
  
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"Are you okay?" Beka inquired when Izobella let her in, "We could hear you cursing from Dylan's office."  
  
"Jak's brother is dead," Izobella said, her face yet again an expressionless mask.  
  
"Oh," Beka tried to sound sympathetic, "Maybe I could get Dylan to give her a High Guard style funeral."  
  
"She hated planets almost as much as I did," Izobella reminisced, "I suppose if I buried her on one, even the one she was born on, her soul would haunt me forever. Launching her into space sounds more like something she would want. Thanks."  
  
  
  
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A few days later the crew of the Andromeda lined up in front of Jak's open casket. Jak was dressed in her favorite outfit and she looked murderously beautiful, even in death. The door open and Izobella strode slowly across, with a poor attempt at a calm look on her face. She kneeled by the casket and stared at her dead friend for a moment and then stood and placed a black rose on the body's chest and placed a dead hand over it.  
  
"Jakelyn Porter…my engineer…my friend…you were always by my side, and for that I am thankful. Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful," the redheaded Captain whispered, before closing the casket lid and stepping back out of the airlock. The door closed and Izzy watched through a window as Jak's casket was launched into empty space.  
  
"Goodbye, my little Munchkin," Izobella whispered as she spread a hand against the cold glass, and Beka felt for the daring female Captain as she finally understood her unease from a few days before: Jak had been Izobella's sister.  
  
  
  
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…………and this is where I leave you hanging! Don't glare at your computer screen and hiss under your breath "Ugh! You evil thing! Don't stop now, right when you get to the interesting part!" It's not like it was the computer's fault. If you're anxious enough to bitch at an inanimate object for simply doing what it's programmed to do, then just review and I'll post more. I've got it all typed up and ready to show you, but I wont take the time if I don't feel my wonderful writing skills are appreciated here. 10 reviews = 1 more chapter, or just a couple of REALLY GOOD reviews = 1 more chapter, Flames = no more! Hell, if I get EXTREMELY pissed off by flames, I might even take away what I've already given you! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	2. Unnerving Green Eyes Vs. The Good Loser

Disclaimer: Andromeda and all the characters from the show belong to Tribune and Gene Rodenberry et al. You can just assume that all the characters you don't recognize from the show belong to me.  
  
Author's Note: Okay, so I got good reviews and no flames so I present to you the second chapter of my masterpiece…  
  
  
  
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Tyr was walking down an empty corridor near the old crew storage areas when he heard music wafting throughout the sector. He stopped to listen and went in search for the source of the sound. He masked his surprise when he walked into storage area 47 and found Izobella sitting cross-legged on a large satin cushion, playing an old guitar. Tyr plodded silently into the room and leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes, listening to the pleasant sounds resonating from the few-hundred year old instrument. The music stopped and Tyr knew he had been noticed.  
  
"It wasn't a public performance," Izzy mumbled in a glum voice.  
  
"It was quite exquisite," Tyr ignored her statement, "So is music the way you express your feelings?"  
  
"Huh?" Izobella asked.  
  
"You said that Dante expressed his feeling with in his mischievous ways, but is this the way you express yours?" Tyr explained his question.  
  
"Not really," Izobella shrugged, "Actually, I usually express my feelings by beating up on the bad guys, but since I got on this ship they don't seem to want to ride up on my ass as much, and I'd spar with someone, but I don't really feel like pulling punches so I won't hurt anyone. Hell, I can't even guarantee that I've got enough self restraint to keep an opponent alive."  
  
"I doubt you could take me," Tyr admitted, "but if you need to vent a little, I'm usually in the gym if I'm not busy."  
  
"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer," Izobella said, "but if I were you, I'd never underestimate my opponents, no matter how weak or frail they may look. You've been warned." The depressed redhead picked up the guitar and stalked silently out of the room. Even Tyr was surprised by her grace and stealth. He had to be honest with himself, at least: if not for the fact that Izobella had been in plain view and smelled strongly (at least to the Neitzscheans enhanced senses) of metal, blood, and tears, not even he, with his amazing hearing, would have noticed her presence.  
  
  
  
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Sweat gushed down Izzy's face and stung mercilessly at the corners of her eyes. She had changed into a pair of tight black shorts and a white tank top that dripped with sweat and had become completely see-through hours ago. The feisty young woman was in the gym beating the living hell out of a heavy bag and practicing her evil you're-going-down-and-you-know- it look.  
  
"I'm sure that whatever that bag did, it's really sorry," a deeply amused male voice chuckled from the hallway as the door slid open.  
  
"Took you long enough," Izobella observed dryly, "I've been itching to completely tire myself out so I can sleep for one whole night without dreaming about Jak and waking up crying. You ready?"  
  
"Quite," Tyr snapped, obviously slightly annoyed that she had suggested he might need a few moments to prepare himself to fight a mere female kludge.  
  
"Yeah, that's what Ranae said when we were attacked by Magog and Phil made me promise I'd kill him if he got infested," Izobella said, "Poor bastard pulled a hamstring, twisted his ankle, and broke his wrist. I'd recommend at least stretching."  
  
"Fine," Tyr growled, and began stretching his arms and legs, and then followed Izzy to the center of the room and crouched in a fighting stance. They circled each other for a long time, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally Izobella got bored and faked a punch to his face and as he blocked, she went for his gut, put was blocked yet again.  
  
"You're fast," Izzy observed as she ducked under Tyr's leg when it swung at her head.  
  
"You aren't bad, yourself," Tyr admitted as he blocked a kick to his knee.  
  
  
  
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"Hey, guys! Dylan! Harper! Come here, you've gotta see this," Beka shouted across command to her Captain and her engineer without turning her head away from the vid. Screen, "Tyr and Izobella are sparring and Tyr looks like he's about to pass out."  
  
"Nah, it's a trick," Harper shrugged, "I'm confident that the Big Guy could kick anyone's ass into next millennium."  
  
"Well, according to Rommie, they've been going at it for over an hour," Beka said, "but if you're really that confident in Tyr, I'll bet you $40 that Izzy will win and you'll be that much richer." Dylan hid an amused smile behind his hand as they shook on it and Beka stalked off saying under her breath "easy money."  
  
  
  
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It's all over, Tyr though as he pinned Izobella and smiled victoriously down at her, but then he was being flipped end over and quite suddenly was frowning not-so-victoriously up at her. She had her hands pinning his wrists and her left foot was pinning his right ankle and her right foot was resting on his left knee cap with her knee bent and hovering uncomfortably close to his groin, so if he moved his left leg her foot would slip, causing her knee to fall and crush his "little self".  
  
Tyr knew he should be more worried about his ability to breed, but he had made the mistake of looking up into her eyes and was practically drowning in the bright green sea of mystery and emotion he found. Suddenly those unnerving green orbs of knowledge became guarded and Izzy stood and offered him a hand.  
  
"You're quite strong," Tyr observed. He had been slightly surprised when she hadn't collapsed screaming and holding her knee when he wrenched it to the side and up at a sharp angle with his foot. That move had even brought down more than a few well-disciplined and well-muscled Neitzschean alphas. He would have been more surprised, but none of his other moves had even seemed to pain her before that.  
  
"I know how to use your size and weight against you and my size and weight for me," Izzy shrugged, as if Tyr hadn't just been staring into her soul, "I do Yoga, also. It keeps your body flexible and helps me concentrate on things other than the pain. You should try it. You look like you're about to black out from the pain."  
  
"Did you realize that we've been sparring for almost 2 hours?" Tyr snapped.  
  
"Yeah," Izzy sighed, "but I'm still only tired, not exhausted. There are still nightmares in store for me. It's almost like my namesakes are doing this just to spite me."  
  
"You're namesakes?" Tyr asked, "Who are they?"  
  
"Okay, my middle namesakes, but whatever," Izobella shrugged, "Athena is the Ancient Greek Goddess of Wisdom and war and Diana is the Ancient Greek Goddess of Wild Things, the Hunt, and the Moon."  
  
"Oh, I see. If you'd like, I could come to your quarters and give you a massage," Tyr suggested, "it would help you sleep."  
  
Izobella just laughed and said, "Mr. Anasazi, you continually amaze me. So many times in the last hour you have dished out moves that almost broke through my wall of self-restraint and I still won, but now you're offering me a massage. Many people would be grumbling and glaring and stomping away right now, but you...you're a good loser."  
  
"I have been called many things in my life," Tyr replied, "but never a 'good loser.'"  
  
"Well, there's a first time for everything," Izzy smiled, "but that massage sounds great. Thanks."  
  
  
  
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"Cough it up," a certain blonde Captain said to her engineer as she stuck out her hand and smiled when Harper dropped a credit chip into her hand.  
  
"I can't believe I just saw that," Harper whined, "Tyr lost and then he promised Izzy a massage. The Big Guy's going soft…and I'm losing money because of it! This can't believe this is happening!"  
  
"Well, it did," Beka teased as she pocketed the credit chip, "and I think it's good that at least someone is managing to tame Tyr's giant ego." She chuckled for a while and then went of to her quarters to take nap since her shift was over.  
  
  
  
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Tyr stood over Izzy as she slept. She had taken a shower and put on pajamas and he had come in and given her his promised massage. It had only taken 10 minutes for her to get completely relaxed and only another 5 before she had fallen asleep. He had stayed to make sure she would be okay and not wake up crying like she had said had happened ever since Jak's death. Tyr stood there for another 20 minutes before deciding she would be okay and going to his own quarters.  
  
Izobella pulled back her covers and put on her bathrobe before walking out of her quarters and toward the mess hall. I'm so happy that I learn at a young age how to slow the tempo of my breathing to that of a sleeping person at a young age, she thought as she stalked silently down a dark corridor, I feel sort of bad that I tricked Tyr into thinking he was helping. All right, I have to give him some credit: That was a great massage, but I guess it just wasn't enough.  
  
"Coffee?" Izobella nearly jumped out of her skin as she walked into the mess hall and realized someone else was there, and they had said something to her.  
  
"Huh?" she asked.  
  
"Would you like some coffee?" Beka asked, as she set her own mug down on a table, "you look like you're on a middle-of-the-night coffee run."  
  
"Thanks," Izzy nodded and was immediately handed a steaming mug and she sat down across from Beka.  
  
"Are you okay?" Beka asked, "I saw you beating up on Tyr earlier. It must take a lot of energy out of you."  
  
"That's what I was hoping for, but no such luck," Izobella sighed, "even after that massage I was still only slightly tired. You know, enough to sleep, but not enough to keep recently deceased relatives out of your nightmares." She took a long dip from her coffee mug and looked down at it. Dark…even…reflective. She saw her reflection on the still surface of the brown liquid and it almost seemed to be laughing at her. Laughing hysterically, like her life was to pathetic to deserve respectful silence. Then, quite suddenly it was Jak's face and the young brunette was crying. Not regular tears, but blood. Jak was crying blood and whispering something. What is she saying? Izobella thought, it's just like in my nightmare and I still don't know what she's saying. Fuck! I'm seeing my bad dreams in my coffee!  
  
"Izobella?" someone's voice said and she was being shaken.  
  
"Wasn't me!" Izzy mumbled as her head shot up from the table.  
  
"Are you okay?" Beka asked, "You were looking at your coffee mug like it was a ghost and then you started mumbling incoherently and passed out."  
  
"I'm fine," Izzy assured the blonde, "I just haven't really been the same since…you know…"  
  
"Since Jak died?" Beka finished, and Izobella nodded sullenly.  
  
"I was sparring with Tyr for so long because I was hoping to just get completely exhausted so I wouldn't be bothered by dreams at all so I could finally get a good night's sleep," Izzy admitted, "and I've even got a knife tucked into the back of my pajama pants and a few under my pillow and a gauss gun under the edge of my bed because all my enemies haunt me in my dreams, too. It's like I'm afraid their real selves with pop out of my dreams and murder me in my sleep, even though I know it's absurd."  
  
"Well, you're safe here," Beka assured Izzy and laid a reassuring hand on her arm, "or at least as safe as you can get on a Commonwealth Warship. We've got our share of enemies, too, but we're all still alive, despite all the anti-Commonwealth activists, Drago Katzov, and bounty hunters after us." She was taken aback when Izobella cracked up.  
  
"Beka, I've got a bigger bounty on my head than you, Dylan, Harper, Trance, and Tyr combined," Izzy explained her sudden outburst, "bounty hunters don't scare me. Magog don't scare me. Calderans don't scare me. Than don't scare me. Neitzscheans don't scare me. Nightsiders don't scare me. No physical being I have ever met has scared me."  
  
"So you're telling me you're completely fearless?" Beka asked, "How is that possible?"  
  
"On the contrary," Izzy countered, "I said I wasn't scared of any physical being I've ever met. What I was trying to say is that what scares me is all in my head. It's pretty pathetic, eh? I, of all people, am known across the universe for defending the helpless and punishing the evil, but I don't even feel safe in my own mind." She chuckled dejectedly for a moment as she looked down into her coffee again and saw herself staring up at her. She took a sip and her reflection disappeared in a ripple of dark liquid.  
  
"Maybe the company will help," Beka suggested, "I was kind of nuts before I found Harper and Trance and joined Dylan on his crazy quest to reunite the universe."  
  
"Yeah, maybe," Izobella sighed, "Well, I think I'll go get the few hours of sleep I can get before I wake up screaming and crying for Jak."  
  
  
  
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That's it for Chapter 2. If you want more, it's the same system. 10 reviews = 1 more Chapter or a few REALLY GOOD reviews = 1 more Chapter, but Flames = NO MORE!! Hell if you flame, I might even take away what I've already given you! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


	3. Author's Note - Very Important!! Please ...

Author's Note: This is it. I had this big long idea in my head for a great fic, but then I totally lost interest. I'm sorry if any of you actually liked this, and Cherubino, I hope me not writing more doesn't stop you from continuing the Gillian Saga. Yes, I remember our deal, but I just can't follow through when I can't bring myself to write anymore Andromeda fics. Nothing's stopping me from reading them, though, and I think I'm not the only one who would be upset if you don't keep writing. Maybe…just maybe, I'm not making any promises…I'll see an episode of Andromeda that inspires me to keep going, but I don't think it will ever happen because I'm fairly certain that they've completely jumped the shark (see www.jumptheshark.com if you have no idea what I'm talking about). At this point I would apologize for any inconveinience, but I really don't care if this troubles you. I will apologize for being a total bitch a second ago, though. A friend I've had for almost two years just completely ditched me because she found out something about me that she thinks is "just wrong". Well, f*ck you, Kirbee! 


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